Datta Dayadhvam Damyata Shantih Shantih Shantih

What’s New, PussyKat?

BEGIN: Self-pity rant; if you’d like to skip to the really interesting stuff, please feel free.

If by “interesting” you mean “I wouldn’t mind if my life ended right here, right now.”

You know, you have to be careful with how you say such things. Because the last thing I want is for someone to think that I’m actually suicidal. I’m not at all. There’s nothing I’d rather do than live a long life here before taking off for the new horizons of the next chapter of my life.

But when pain consumes your bones like acid bubbling through the marrow, when every major muscle is swollen like bad mead and tender with poison, when the pain medicine you have dials you down from 100 to 96 and the pain itself causes you to spike a fever…that’s the time when you think “if another person walked in here and put a gun to my head, I would not argue.”

It was really weird. I think sometimes I should not write anything about it, because the writing is self-indulgent and serves no purpose other than a bit of a whinge after the real need for whinging is passed. But I trust that anyone who reads this can feel free to skip the whingy parts and jump to the goodish stuff.

/End Self Pity

Okay, now on to the interestingishness.

Saturday night I got a belated 40th birthday present combined with an early Christmas present. Yes, that’s right, my friends. The feather-light new Graphite Kindle 3 with the super bright white screen is now mine! Quinndle 2: GobiE-Reader is it’s official name. And that name is fitting. The screen contrast is so much better; I was beginning to really have to strain at reading my older Kindle, with it’s screen contrast not unlike a yellowing paperback stained with old coffee. This one is more like reading freshly-printed crisp paper. The graphite shell is a much more techy color and makes it feel more like a new gadget and less like something moldering in a closet full of computer goods circa 1989. And it’s much lighter, weight-wise.

Why am I telling you this? Surely you don’t care that I spent money on something! I have to admit that I do find such blog entries awkward and a bit braggy. Like “look at me, I have this toy which you do not have! Look on my purchases, ye people and dispair!” I don’t mean it like that. I more mean it as a bit of information. If you were thinking about buying a Kindle 3, I’d hope my details would help you make your decision. Okay, I admit, that’s a flimsy excuse. But really, getting my Kindle 3 was one of the few great things that happened to me over the weekend. (The other great thing is coming up.) In fact, let’s just move to Other Great Thing, shall we?

Great Thing #2: Actually, in order of importance to me, this would be #1. Saturday evening, when I was feeling better–before I began to feel much, much worse–I had the loveliest date out with my wonderful spouse. My mom had seen a local restaurant on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and told us we should go check it out. It’s a middle-eastern place that has a hummus bar and offers many other fresh delights. They make everything themselves, and it sounded delicious.

I tell you now it was a very good thing that I was with someone I loved, because when you have to wait 25 minutes for your appetizer and another 50 minutes for your main course, at a table two and a half feet from the almost-always-open door of the only bathroom in the establishment, you best have someone to talk to. It was excruciating. And then, after waiting forever for our food, the Chicken on the Sajj was too spicy (I had asked for mild) so I asked for more yogurt sauce. They charged me 99 cents for a one ounce portion. You wouldve thought they’d spot me that after making me wait all night for my food. But no. I’m not putting the restaurant name in this blog entry because I don’t want anyone googling to have the wrong impression. But, wait. Maybe do. Now that I think about it, even though I had fun hanging out with Mr. Me and laughing at the life-sized Guy Fieri poster on the wall next to me I wouldn’t have gone if I’d seen a review like this. So anyway, Cafe Rakka is the place. If you wanna go, they make a great cheese plate, but their main dishes are overcooked, overspiced and overdry. The restaurant is overcrowded and understaffed. Which is a shame, because it has a lot of potential. Just make sure you get there right at 5:00 (when they open for dinner). That way your interminable wait will be at your table.

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Sounds like the rehearsal dinner for my sister’s wedding this weekend. It was a 5 course meal with a wait time of 20-45 minutes between each course. We were there 3.5 hours and we left as soon as everyone finished desert (so we’re not talking hours of just sitting around socializing after the meal).

Writers’ Advice

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
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